Texas Bathroom Bill Has Emotions, and Stakes, Running High

Image

Opponents of legislation that would restrict bathroom use gathered Friday at the State Capitol in Austin. Fears are high that the bill could provoke boycotts and harm the economy.CreditCreditJon Herskovitz/Reuters

AUSTIN, Tex. — Amid conflicting pressures from gay rights groups, social conservatives, corporations and the state’s Republican leadership, the Texas Senate on Friday waded back into the volatile issue of restricting bathroom use by transgender people in government buildings and schools.

The issue, which roiled North Carolina for more than a year and led to boycotts and other economic blowback, has become one of the most heated and high-stakes political dramas in Texas. It has deepened the divide between moderate Republicans and social conservatives and caused widespread fears that a wave of boycotts and protests would do serious damage to the Texas economy, which is still feeling the effects of a drop in the price of oil.

Given the presence in Texas, the second most populous state, of three of the nation’s 10 largest cities, the economic stakes from boycotts or cancellations of concerts and athletic events could dwarf what played out in North Carolina.

The so-called bathroom bill was approved by a Republican-dominated Senate committee on Friday evening and now heads to the full Senate for a vote, part of a fast-paced push by social conservatives to try to pass the measure into law in the coming weeks.

Earlier on Friday, more than 250 supporters and opponents of the bill signed up to testify before the Senate Committee on State Affairs. The testimony began in the morning and continued into the evening. The hearing centered on two bills requiring transgender people to use the bathroom, locker room or shower that corresponds with the sex on their birth certificate, as opposed to their gender identity, in public buildings, including schools. The version that the committee ultimately approved passed by a vote of 8 to 1.

The newly elected mayor of San Antonio, Ron Nirenberg, told the senators in opposing the bill that the mere filing of it has already cost his city millions of dollars in lost conventions. A number of transgender Texans testified against it, including Sierra Jane Davis, 22, a transgender woman from Austin and a former Marine.

Ms. Davis, who has the Marine Corps emblem tattooed on her left arm, said in an interview outside the hearing that the bill would “open the floodgates to more and more legislation, and lets the public see that we are allowed to be discriminated against.”

Alisa Miller, an Austin resident who is the mother of a 15-year-old transgender girl, prepared to testify wearing a gray T-shirt reading, “Don’t Discriminate in the Lone Star State.” Her daughter, Maeve, who transitioned to a girl when she was 14, now uses the girls’ room at her Austin high school and worries about being bullied if she is forced to use a boys’ room.

Social conservatives, led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, have denied that the bill discriminates against anyone and have accused critics of exaggerating the potential economic damage. They said the issue is about public safety and women’s privacy.

“It’s not about transgender,” Trayce Bradford, the president of a conservative group called the Texas Eagle Forum, told the Senate committee. “It’s about feeling safe. There has to be some boundaries.”

Ms. Bradford, who said she was stalked and sexually assaulted in college, said conservative activists have been unfairly accused of spreading hate by backing the legislation. “I don’t know of any conservative who wants to serve as the potty police,” she said.

Terry Holcomb, a leader of the Republican Party of Texas who testified in support of the bill, described it as a common-sense issue that has been “deliberately misconstrued and mischaracterized.” Charles Flowers, the senior pastor of Faith Outreach Center International in San Antonio, who was planning to testify but ultimately did not, said he and other ministers have urged their congregations to tell lawmakers to vote in favor of the bill, which he said would leave women and girls “at risk” without its protections.

“It’s not a Democratic or Republican issue,” Mr. Flowers said.

On Sunday, IBM took out full-page ads in major Texas newspapers, saying that the company “firmly opposes” any measure that would harm the state’s gay, lesbian and transgender community and make it harder for businesses to recruit and retain talent.

The next day, the chief executives of 14 Dallas-based companies — including corporate giants like American Airlines, AT&T Inc., Southwest Airlines and Texas Instruments — sent a letter to the governor expressing concern that the bill “would seriously hurt the state’s ability to attract new businesses, investment and jobs.”

And on Wednesday, the presiding officers of the Episcopal Church wrote to the speaker of the Texas House and suggested that if the bill passed, the church would cancel its nine-day General Convention in Austin scheduled for July 2018.

“In 1955, we were forced to move a General Convention from Houston to another state because Texas laws prohibited black and white Episcopalians from being treated equally,” read the letter from Bishop Michael B. Curry and another leader. “We would not stand then for Episcopalians to be discriminated against, and we cannot countenance it now.”

Jeff Moseley, chief executive of the Texas Association of Business, the state’s most influential business lobby, announced that the group was taking its opposition to the bill to the airwaves by making a “seven-figure media buy.” The group has long aligned itself with the state’s conservative causes and issues, and has rarely taken public stands on social issues.

“The bathroom bill distracts from the real challenges we face and would result in terrible economic consequences — on talent, on tourism, on investment, on growth, and on small businesses,” Mr. Moseley said in a statement.

The Legislature failed to pass a bathroom bill during the regular legislative session that ended in May, with moderate Republicans in the House clashing with social conservatives in the Senate. Several Republicans in the House, led by Joe Straus, the speaker, worry that a North Carolina-style series of boycotts, canceled conventions and negative national attention would hit Texas if the bill passed.

The lieutenant governor, Mr. Patrick, who has been the driving force behind the bill, effectively forced Gov. Greg Abbott to call lawmakers back for a 30-day special session to give the bathroom bill another shot at passage. Mr. Patrick used legislation that was vital to keeping a few government agencies operating as a tool to get Mr. Abbott to order lawmakers back to Austin.

The bathroom bill was expected to easily win approval in the Senate during the special session, which began on Tuesday, but its chances are less assured in the House, and it was unclear whether moderate Republicans will be successful in stalling, killing or watering down the bill.

The measure was filed by State Senator Lois W. Kolkhorst, a Republican, and requires all multiple-occupancy restrooms, showers and locker rooms in public buildings to be designated for and used only by “persons of the same sex as stated on a person’s birth certificate.” The bill applies to multiple-occupancy restrooms in local government buildings and public schools.

It also prohibits localities and schools from adopting anti-discrimination policies that allow transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: Texas Senate Wades Back Into a High-Stakes Debate on Bathroom Bill. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe